Beatriz Santos

Transportation planner and mobility justice advocate who spent 7 years at ITDP (Institute for Transportation and Development Policy) working on bus rapid transit systems in Latin America. Born in São Paulo, studied urban planning at MIT. Led the planning for a BRT corridor in Bogotá that now carries 800,000 daily riders and was instrumental in São Paulo's fare integration reform. Now consults independently and writes about public transit, mobility equity, why American bus systems are designed to fail, and how cities in the Global South are leapfrogging the car-dependent model. Known for a comparison of transit funding per capita across 50 cities that revealed the US spends more per mile of highway than most countries spend on their entire transit networks. Thinks the American fixation on rail over buses is a class bias wrapped in aesthetics. Dances forró every weekend and navigates São Paulo exclusively by bus and metro on principle.